Its perfectly normal for a news site to report on a strange accident at the nerve center of an important country - Tiananmen, the Kremlin, White House, etcetera. Its called news. What is not normal is how many posters, most Chinese from what I can tell, are remarkably thin-skinned and start whining about how the West, especially the US, maltreat them and do not understand and should keep out of China's internal affairs and other verbal diarrhea. What the Economist does, unlike other news sites, is keep China accountable for its very considerable human rights abuses. There has been an ongoing repression of Uighurs, just as there has been with Tibetans, for over 50 years now. With Tibetans the deaths are most probably over one million over that time period - and things are only getting worse, with government now refusing to allow the teaching of Tibetan language, an increasing police state in Lhasa and other Tibetan towns with cameras, a refusal to not only talk with the Dalai Lama on Beijing's part, but a refusal to acknowledge that he has any validity in representing the Tibetan people.

When there are disturbances, crashes near the White House, the Occupy movement, Tea Party rallies against Obama, it is all there, in the open, available for any news outlet - British, American, Chinese, Russian - to report on and make of it what they wish. The US has enough strength in their democracy to allow total freedom of the press and of speech, as do other countries like Britain, France and India. But anything in China must be gleaned through layers of state security and censoring - to whit how difficult it has been to see footage of the latest atrocities against Uighurs in Xinjiang, and Tibetans in the TAR (what autonomy?) as well as Kham, Amdo and other regions. There is not freedom of speech or expression, and the public is fed heavily filtered and propagandized news. But still, thanks to intrepid locals who want the world to know, footage gets out, at great personal peril. And many Chinese do support freedom of speech - and suffer for it, like Lui Xiaobo, who has been rewarded by the Chinese government for his frank opinions with jail. The current Chinese government is clearly worse than previous ones - the question is why? With unrest in Tibet, Xinjiang, and now strange incidents in Beijing, it would appear that something is happening. Of course news agencies will report it.

Kudos to The Economist for their commitment to freedom of speech and to their journalistic responsibility to let their reading public know the truth.

i always can not understand why so many foreigners care so much about bad things in China and always whitewash such matters. i do not know how should i comment such situation or people, but i do want to ask these people to think that if a Chinese people or media do the same to 911 or other bad things in other countries, how will the people in those nations think? Will they think that Chinese people are so hospital that they would like to put things in other state at first instead of their own countries', or will they think that Chinese people are so annoying that they would like to hug so-called democracy and go to hell instead of embracing peaceful life.

"i always can not understand why so many foreigners care so much about bad things in China and always whitewash such matters. "

Wishful thinking combined with abyssmal ignorance about China.
The ignorance part is very easy to measure. I am a Chinese, having an IQ of 127 and holding a doctoral degree, fancinated by Western civilization from childhood. But now I assess myself to have been extremely ignorant about everything West before I spent 4 years in USA and became fluent in English and done intensive reading in English. My conclusion: anyone will remain hopelessly ignorant about a heterogeneous culture before one master the language and dip into the society for a long time.
There are lots of Chinese surpassed this barrier. 50 millions maybe.
Now ask your average TE reader or average Western journalist/pundit the language question, let alone the "dip into" part.
Forget the cheap labor. This is the single biggest advantage Chinese hold against any Western rival.

All the nonsense which were put by Han nationalist or their Islamophobic western sympathizers appalls me . Situation in Xinjiang has nothing to with Islam or religion. I know, Governments in the west are beholden to China with debts , But I am so surprised how many people are sold on Chinese State Propaganda and Praising China for oppressing Uyghurs. A lot of you, who have never been to Xinjiang, nor talked to Uyghurs. So, you don't know the situation, please don't naively comment on it. Xinjiang is Uyghurland which was invaded by Han Chinese in 1949. Now most Uyghurs accept to live under Chinese Rule. but that was not enough for the Chinese. The region was flooded by Hans to change the demography of the region, so they can have a firm hand. To do so, they gave so many preferential treatments to Hans to come, at the result, they discriminated local uyghurs to access Jobs and resources. Uyghurs are treated as second class. Every jobs and government position goes to only Hans, discriminating Uyghurs on Jobs, denying hotel or extra monitoring common place in China. Uyghur culture and Language is also treated as state enemy. At the result, Uyghurs become so marginalized, jobless, powerless and frustrated. As long as Han Racism and Nationalism will not be stopped, it is hard to avert this vicious cycle of hatred and Revenge.
Uyghur have same struggles as Black people in the American south,or in South Africa, remember there were many church bombings and violence at that time which were committed by all sides, Uyghurs want the same racial equality and Justice. I wish Uyghurs have more decent way to express themselves, but it is not the case in Totalitarian China. I condemn all the foolish acts of violence committed by crazies, even though i deeply sympathize with many Uyghurs frustration toward racism and injustice.

Let me quote Martin Luther King, Uyghur people will never be satisfied until they are treated as Hans in Jobs, Education. Denying jobs, housing, hotel rooms, just because they are Uyghur will never satisfy them. Stopping them at anywhere, airports, bus station for racial profiling will never satisfy them. Indiscriminately killing and arrest them for their speech will never satisfy them.Banning their language at school will not satisfy them.

As Uyghur myself, I wish one day all Chinese, regardless of their ethnicity, could have equal standing in education and economic opportunities. So let freedom ring from Beijing to Urumqi and Kashgar ! So all we can say free at last !

I pray for every Han Chinese whose hearts are darkened with Han racism and ethnic chauvinism to realize that we are all children of God,there for we should be treated equally. Dear God, May fill hearts of Hans with love and compassion towards Uyghur and Tibetans, so we can live in peace and harmony.

"Xinjiang is Uyghurland which was invaded by Han Chinese in 1949." ??? This is new. Could you provide a credible link?

"Every jobs and government position goes to only Hans, discriminating Uyghurs on Jobs"
The governor of Xinjiang is Nur Bekri, an Uighur.
My tour guide was an Uighur who spoke good English and Mandarin. He actually studied at Beijing University.
Uighurs who could speak Mandarin do have jobs, at least in the hotel where I stayed. But many Uighurs are not interested in learning Mandarin.

I did speak to a few Uighurs. They do have a resentment of Xinjiang being called 'Xinjiang' (New Frontier). In my opinion, it should be changed to Xijiang (West Frontier) or back to the old name of 'Huijiang' (Muslim)

"As Uyghur myself, I wish one day all Chinese, regardless of their ethnicity, could have equal standing in education and economic opportunities."

And I agree with this whole-heartedly. I believe all Hans, Uighurs, Kazakhs, Tibetans, Mongols, Miaos, Manchus etc. should be treated as one people, Zhong-Hua-min-zu and share all equal rights and wealth.

"I pray for every Han Chinese whose hearts are darkened with Han racism and ethnic chauvinism to realize that we are all children of God,there for we should be treated equally. Dear God, May fill hearts of Hans with love and compassion towards Uyghur and Tibetans, so we can live in peace and harmony."

In Economist, you will not feel surprised to see such self-righteous person saying such absurd thing. I want to ask poster which nation are you live in and let me see if your country had invaded any other country or state.

i don't agree with you. as i know, minorities in china, such as Uyghur, enjoy many favourite policies in education, labor market, etc. for example, the government are preferred to employ them as officer in Uyghur habitation. Yes, there are poor Uyghur in China. But there are also poor Han people. these issues can't be simply accounted to the racism of Han. they are social problems which existed across the whole country of China. i am a Chinese and Han. i don't think the Uyghur people are different from Han or any other minorities, except their religious belief, language and custom. we're all chinese.

There is a good reason why one should not bulldoze centuries of history to build the largest square in the world with the icon of Mao in front, it give any half decent photographer (or teenager with a cell phone) a convenient photo-op on any "incident".

A similar car crash could happen anywhere in the world with hardly a mention in international press. Yet just because it happens in the often hyped Tiananmen Square, the usual media outlets are jumping with glee with all sorts of conspiracy theories about how dissatisfied ordinary Chinese are with their government. And you wonder why the Chinese government restricts foreign journalists?

Is it a terrorist attack? I don't think so. Remember the jeep had three passengers, all of whom died. Terrorists typically carry out suicide killings alone while trying to maximise death rate and impact. Why? Because it is more 'cost-effective' to act one by one, so there is no reason for three 'terrorists' to die together in one incident.

I distinguish between a 'grievance' attack and a terrorist attack. While the former is aimed at addressing one's grievances in an extremist way, the latter stresses terrorising people in a large scale. Therefore, 'grievance' attacks are basically isolated cases by individuals, but terrorist attacks are coordinated, organised and systematic.

With the updated casualty figure of 5 deaths (including Japanese and Filipino tourists) and 38 wounded, the "accident" looks more like a homegrown terrorist attack.
Given the widespread grievances in Chinese society, I am afraid there will be much more "accidents" to come.
Anyway, if this was merely an "accident", the foreign reporters who happened to be in the vicinity should not be detained afterward.

These suicide bombers were speeding towards the iconic Mao portrait. I bet they were targeting at Mao.

Their action was no different from the defacing of Mao's portrait during '89 (but those pathetic students even turned the three defacers over to the GongAn -- they all received over 20+ years sentence -- the most severe sentence anyone would receive for graffiti).

I see this suicide attack as a protest against Xi's re-Maoification campaign.

Just like some chicken hawk Hong Kong posters trying to make for his family's lack of communist values and patriotism, by posting on pro-CPC comments. Sorry you have to do more than that. For starters join the CPC, that would helpe alot.

Just like some chicken hawk Hong Kong posters trying to make for his family's lack of communist values and patriotism, by posting on pro-CPC comments. Sorry you have to do more than that. For starters join the CPC, that would helpe alot.]

Fristly,I would like to concrete an idea that falun gong isn't a so-called quasi-Buddhist sect,it's a heresy.secondly,as a chinese,I don't think it's just a crash accident,i would like to believe it's a political action to rise people's attention to something we don't know yet.finally,it's a pity to heard this sad thing,if you want something,you can apply in common way,there is no need to act in such an extreme way. R.I.P

I don't want talk too much of the politics,and i know maybe there hasn't a commom way for everyone to reflect their apply.but,the point of my view is any extreme way shouldn't be tolerate for any reason

Sounds like western media sensationalism to me. I'm sure there are many car crashes in Beijing and throughout China every day. Just because it happens at Tiananmen and the Forbidden City tourist entrance does not mean there is any political message involved, unless you're a western journalist. I'm sure the same journalists writing this article would speculate that a car crash outside the American White House might be an act of terrorism too.

If it was treated by the Chinese government as just another car crash, you would definitely have a point. But they seemed to hve reacted ratehr differently than they do to most car crashes. Which, necessarily, is going to draw attention (and speculation).

This really shows the difference between the US and China. For a similar vehicular incident in the counterpart of The Square-- The Mall, even during the government shutdown time, the driver of the vehicle was shot multiple times and instantly killed, the passenger rescued, and no other injuries or fatalities.

The similarity, of course, stop there. For one on The Mall was caused by a deranged individual and other in The Square was the harbinger of apocalypse and arrival of DR, Democritus Reincarnation (he must have learned that neat trick over the years, yes?)